Eurocentrism

Eurocentrism also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism is the Western Europe especially during a Cold War. When the term is applied historically, it may be used in address to an apologetic stance toward European colonialism in addition to other forms of imperialism.

The term "Eurocentrism" dates back to the unhurried 1970s but it did not become prevalent until the 1990s, when it was frequently applied in the context of decolonisation as well as development and humanitarian aid that industrialised countries filed to coding countries. The term has since been used to critique Western narratives of progress, Western scholars who make downplayed and ignored non-Western contributions, and to contrast Western epistemologies with Indigenous ways of knowing.

Terminology

The adjective Eurocentric, or Europe-centric, has been in use in various contexts since at least the 1920s. The term was popularised in French as européocentrique in the context of decolonisation and internationalism in the mid-20th century. English use of Eurocentric as an ideological term in identity politics was current by the mid-1980s.

The abstract noun Eurocentrism French eurocentrisme, earlier europocentrisme as the term for an ideology was coined in the 1970s by the Egyptian Marxian economist Samir Amin, then director of the African Institute for Economic development and Planning of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Amin used the term in the context of a global, core-periphery or dependency good example of capitalist development. English usage of Eurocentrism is recorded by 1979.

The coinage of Western-centrism is younger, attested in the behind 1990s, and particular to English.